What unites the Hungarian Adam Fazekas, the Veronese Giovanna Bonazzi and the American Savannah Lee? The answer is ice cream. Better, the fact of occupying the podium of the Gelato Festival World Ranking, i.e. “the most complete world category ranking for individual ice cream makers”. Making a comparison with tennis, let’s talk about the Sinner, Alcaraz and Djokovic of the specialty. «La Parona del Gelato» is between the «Fazekas Cukrászda» of Budapest, first place, and the «Savannah’s Gelato Kitchen» of San Francisco, third in the ranking.
The various flavors
«We came in second place thanks to Veronese tastes: the Sbrisolona ice cream from 12 Apostoli, inspired by the great Giorgio Gioco, the Kiss of Romeo and Juliet and the Little Red Riding Hood”, says Bonazzi. She has already been a historical face of sport with mountain biking, a degree in downhill with plenty of world and Italian titles, a pioneer together with the other Veronese Paola Pezzo. Its second position in the international ice cream ranking arises from the points accumulated in eleven years of competitions, with a skimming that took place among over 8 thousand colleagues. «The first competition I won dates back to ten years ago, here in Verona. In 2017 I also participated in the American stage of the Gelato Festival in Colorado. I was there because they were putting me in the mountain bike Hall of Fame and on this occasion we sent our fourth flavor into the competition: a mix of basil, mint, lemon and ginger.”
History
Born in ’66, Bonazzi has been running the ice cream shop in Piazzetta del Porto in Parona, together with her husband Roberto, for exactly twenty years: «We’ll celebrate them next Monday», explains she, awarded earlier this week in Rome for the podium in the ranking. It is the “Veronese” tastes, as mentioned, that have made her famous, taken around the world together with her former collaborator Giulia Magi. «The Sbrisolona del 12 Apostoli was born from the recipe for “imported” sbrisolona here in Verona by Giorgio Gioco’s wife, Jole (died in July 2020, a year after Giorgio, ed.), with a final splash of white Recioto. The Kiss of Romeo and Juliet instead combines shortcrust pastry typical “s” shape from Bosco Chiesanuova with a layer of semifreddo with cocoa typical of Juliet’s Kiss. Finally, the Little Red Riding Hood has three levels: the layer of semifreddo with almond brittle made by Saladine from Verona, the layer of shortcrust pastry by Val d’Illasi and raspberry sauce which comes from Raldon.” Three ice creams made in Verona that have become exportable. Up to second place in the international ranking. «There are not many other Veronese confectionery products that lend themselves to reworking — says Bonazzi — Pandoro or nadalin, for example, would be out of season.” Not bad: there are plenty of ideas for making cones or cups special in Piazzetta del Porto.
